


Innocent Blood

by KaedeRavensdale



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: After Life, Depressing, Execution, Implied Murder, M/M, You've been warned, don't read this if you want a happy story, framed for a crime, ghost Eren, ghost levi, sort of bitter sweet ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-14 09:45:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4559955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaedeRavensdale/pseuds/KaedeRavensdale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He never thought they’d go this far. Perhaps he should have. It would have saved them all a lot of trouble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Innocent Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Summer is over and we do absolutely nothing on the first day of school; this idea wouldn't let me sleep last night and so i wrote this today instead of playing stupid ice breaker games.

There were no windows in the dungeon below the courthouse in Mitras, and the flickering light of the single low burning torch hanging loose in its bracket on the roughhewn grimy wall did little to alleviate what was otherwise total darkness. But despite this the scene before him was perfectly clear as he slid his body between the bars of the cell door to perch himself beside the chained figure lying curled up on the cot inside.

                He’d known that there were powers inside the walls that had been inflamed, to say the least, by Eren’s presence. Powers that might want the young shifter dead, but as long as he’d been there to stand in his defense there was nothing any of them could do. He’d never once thought that they would go this far; resort to what they did. Perhaps he should have.

                It would have saved them all a lot of trouble in the end.

                Eren looked miserable even while asleep, bruises-both new and yellowing-blooming across the youthful face contorted into a mask of confusion and agony. Beneath his tightly closed eyes were the same dark shadows which had once marked his own face like black winged crows roosting on a barren branch and tear tracks, dried silver and glistening softly in the all but non-existent light, were etched against his cheeks. Clenched in one hand like a talisman to ward off evil was the last thing that he’d been wearing before it happened; a once pristine white cravat now splattered dark red with blood, silken threads slit in places by the same knife that had torn out his throat.

                Levi sighed quietly, resting once warm and calloused fingertips to the sleeper’s temple and gently brushing the hair away from his face, but all the boy felt was a chill wind and he shuddered.

                “This wasn’t your fault, brat.” He said, voice echoing in like thunder in the silence of the dark and solitary cell even as it went unheard.

                The murder of a superior officer; a capital offense which he’d been framed for and a shot to the heart for them both. Not a single man in the Survey Corp. believed that the ‘evidence’ being pressed against him by the Military Police and the Commander himself had spoken up in his defense but to no avail. It made no difference. They wanted him dead, the innocent caring precious driven boy who the higher ups only saw as a Titan.

                Dawn was soon, and with it came the execution. He’d stay with him until then, and they’d leave this broken hell of a world together.

                He sat there, watching him sleep like he had countless nights before, listening to the gentle sounds of his breathing until the torch burned low and guttered out and even after. Carding his fingers gently through his hair and stroking his face in an effort to grant some final comfort in those last hours until a far off door opened with a distant shriek and the footfalls of the guard drew down the hall towards them.               

                The hellish shriek of the rusted out cell door against the uneven floor startled the brunet awake, large green eyes blinking up at his jailer, bleary with sleep and fear. He was jerked to his feet by his painfully handcuffed wrists, the bloodied fabric that he clung to falling from his grasp and fluttering towards the ground; he snatched at it with a small cry but the burly guard dragged him backwards and just out of reach. The raven caught it and returned it to his hand, a wind with no explanation in that dismal windowless place and left the boy wide eyed.

                “L-Levi!” He whimpered.

                _“Shut up!”_ He yelped when he was struck; how Levi would have loved to wrap his fingers around the bastard’s throat and ring the life out of him. Would have if he were still alive.

                Eren dutifully trotted in front of the man leading him to his death, though with a noticeable drag to his feet, up a flight of stairs and down a hallway through a small door leading into a stadium. Here he was forced to kneel in the dirt, head pushed forwards onto a chopping block and hands bound behind his back.

                He whimpered and flinched when cold ink was pressed against his skin, marking a red x at the nape of his neck. The raven crouched in front of him, taking in the look of terror he was fighting so hard to hide and the sight of his hands fisted white knuckled around the remains of the white fabric.

                “I’m here, Eren.” He rested his hands on his face in a gentle caress; the emerald eyes focused suddenly as if he could see him. “I’m here.”

                It was heartbreaking, the scene itself and everything leading up to it but there was nothing that anyone could do now. It was too late. For both of them. He could only be happy that the brunet’s pain would all be over soon.

                The heavy blade of the axe flashed pewter as it came down with a low drone, head falling one way and body the other. Innocent blood spread dark crimson across the broken floor, the grief stricken wail of his sister splitting the air as she was held back from leaping over the barricade and onto the arena floor by Horseface and the Blonde Coconut, the rest of their regiment in silence at the loss of their second member in just over 48 hours. All of this didn’t register, distracted as he was by receiving the boy into his arms; the teen latched onto him immediately, nails leaving small crescent indents in the skin through the fabric of his uniform.

                “You _were_ here!”

                “I never left,” Levi soothed, getting to his feet and offering the younger his hand to help him up as well. “I promised that I’d always be there for you, remember?”

                Eren looked away from him, ashamed. “Look where that got you. If it weren’t for me-.”

                “This isn’t your fault!” The raven snapped; after catching sight of the brunet’s flinch, he added in a much softer tone “never think that.”

                “It hurt.”

                “I know.” Silence for a while, the blood parting around them alongside the chaos. “Well, there’s a hell of a lot better of a world on the other side. You ready to leave?”

                “Yeah,” he said after a moment, accepting the offered aid to rise to his feet. “I’m ready.”

                “Then let’s go.”

                They walked together, hand in hand, into the light.


End file.
